Systems for assembly/manufacture of multicomponent devices (e.g. printed circuit boards) employ feed and placement mechanisms through which components to be assembled on a given workpiece are delivered to prescribed registration locations so that they may be readily seized and conveyed by a transport device to an assembly position on the workpiece. Because of the almost infinite variety of shapes and sizes in which components are manufactured, feed and placement mechanisms are normally custom designed or employ a limited number of unique orientation/guide elements dedicated to components of specified physical parameters. As a consequence, the manufacture/assembly of a multicomponent device requires the availability of substantial inventory of different feed mechanisms (adding to equipment overhead cost) and/or demands incremental assembly processing (which inherently suffers from substantial down time during substitution of the orientation/guide elements).
Such conventional orientation/feed mechanisms make up what is commonly known as a vibratory "feed bowl" technology, in which a three dimensional pile of components is subjected to a vibrational separation process. As the components are mechanically moved by a vibratory surface, traps in their motion paths remove those of selected size, shape or orientation for subsequent reentry into the sorting process. Those components which pass through the system are delivered (usually be means of a queue) to an output registration point. Such feed bowl mechanisms, in addition to being dedicated to use with only a particular class of components, have limited application in electronic component assembly systems where leads, which are typically randomly bent, may become enmeshed with one another and are a source of frequent jamming of the sorter.